I’ll get this out of the way quickly: “Unbroken: Path to Redemption,” is a better-than-average movie. It’s worth your $10 to go see it.
After being thoroughly depressed by another movie with “broken” in the title (still-in-theaters “God Bless the Broken Road”), I was prepared to sit through another 90 minutes of shoddy workmanship with a thin, Christian veneer tacked on as an afterthought. Just two or three minutes into Unbroken (I refuse to write out again that unnecessarily cumbersome … [Read more...]

FESTUS – As a member of the Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Board, Stephanie Wood-Bliven gets to see and hear the value of Baptist cooperation. But the member of Faith Baptist, Festus didn’t need to be a part of the MBC board to know first-hand about the genius of the Cooperative Program; she’s lived it.
The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ unified plan of giving to missions. Cooperating Southern Baptist churches give a percentage of their undesignated receipts in support … [Read more...]

Before we get into God Bless the Broken Road, let’s take a second and chat about C.S. Lewis.
In his book, An Experiment in Criticism, Lewis wrote a Christian artist’s “first priority ought to be excellence and delight in the craft itself, first and foremost, as a painter, musician, poet, writer, and so on, else the artistic craft suffer misuse and abuse. The kingdom content and implications will then be there … naturally, latent, even if indirect, bubbling up.”
Practice good art, and the … [Read more...]

HUNSTVILLE – First Baptist Church here has prepared plans for how to deal with many types of emergencies – whether that’s a fire, storm or active shooter. And after a gas leak during Sunday School Aug. 12, they now know the plan works.
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A church trustee and another member confirmed the gas odor, but by then the youth pastor and a deacon had already gotten everyone out of the building.
Such a strong gas odor might prompt a call to 911, but pastor John Rhodes happens to be a … [Read more...]

JEFFERSON CITY – The Gilzow family just wanted to worship together.
But sometimes that simple desire could be a challenge. Five-year-old Ozias, who is on the autism spectrum, could easily be overwhelmed by the constant barrage of sounds and the requirement to sit still during a church service, prompting his parents, Tim and Joy, or his older brother, Blaze, to step out and be with him as he sought some relief.
Their church family at Cornerstone Baptist Church saw the need. They … [Read more...]

KANSAS CITY (BP) - Fall convocation is a time of "consecrating ourselves anew for the task of ministry preparation," Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in formally opening the new academic year Aug. 21 at the Kansas City, Mo., campus.
In addition to Allen's message from James 1:19-25, the seminary's newest faculty member, Andreas Köstenberger, signed the Articles of Faith. After convocation, the Midwestern community honored the seminary's first … [Read more...]

ST. LOUIS – The traditional gift for a 40th wedding anniversary is ruby. To celebrate four decades of marriage to her husband, Dwight, Sherry Blankenship went over the top and gave him a kidney. It’s a story not only of love between a husband and wife, but also of support between a church and its pastor, as well as God caring for His servant.
‘The Father Watching Over His Child’
Dwight, who has served as pastor of Parkway Baptist Church here for 24 years, went in for his annual physical … [Read more...]

SPRINGFIELD – The Missouri Baptist Children’s Home has a far-reaching network as they train and provide gospel-centered resources for foster families as they care for more than a thousand kids across the state. But as the number of at-risk children, youth and families keeps rising, even their reach isn’t far enough.
“We cannot be everywhere,” Russell Martin, the MBCH president told his trustees in July. “But almost everywhere in Missouri there is a Southern Baptist church that can provide … [Read more...]

NEW YORK (BP) – Marking the 100th anniversary of GuideStone Financial Resources, the Southern Baptist entity's trustees gathered July 30–31 in regular session to hear ministry reports from its executive leadership team and staff.
In a report to trustees on GuideStone 100, GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins noted that 2018 also marks the conclusion of GuideStone's long-range strategic plan that has guided the ministry's work for more than a decade. All of its key objectives, Hawkins … [Read more...]

HANNIBAL – Education programs in prisons are usually aimed at giving someone a leg up once their time is served and they return to society at large to make a positive impact. A hard-earned associate’s or bachelor’s degree earned behind bars isn’t worth much if the inmate never gets released. But what if the goal is to use education to make a positive impact behind the prison walls?
It’s an idea that intrigues Hannibal-LaGrange University President, Anthony Allen. Though such a program is … [Read more...]

SPRINGFIELD – Freeway Ministries, an effort to bridge the divide between the church and those struggling to emerge from addiction and life behind bars, has grown from one man’s conviction by the Holy Spirit into an international gospel force. And what began out of Crossway Baptist Church here now has its own headquarters in north Springfield.
“Never in a million years, when I was sitting in a prison cell with no place to go, no friends, no plans, and no place to call home did I envision … [Read more...]

Ethics

MBC Executive Director John Yeats: “We must remain vigilant until every child is safe in his/her mother’s womb. We must also be much more caring for every mother whose life circumstances are so tragic that she would contemplate a medical procedure or abortifacient to end her child’s life.”